Tips for Enterprises to Recover Data from NAS Failures

The price of enterprise hardware has dropped considerably over the last few years, but it’s irresponsible for corporations not to take care of NAS (network attached storage) installed on systems. NAS appliance failure has become a common occurrence in organizations, either due to irreplaceable hardware components, buggy firmware, or inadequate installations.

The multi-disk modern storage device is integrated to store enterprise data and route it on a network. In terms of storage technology, NAS member disks are combined via RAID technology into one storage. While the reliance ensures fault-tolerance, it isn’t a replacement for data backup. That means if single copies of data are stored in NAS devices, malfunctioning would result in loss of important information.

Also, when data spreads across multiple disks (which happens in most instances), plugging separate HDDs into a system isn’t going to solve the problem. Moreover, if a company attempts to reuse the same disk drives in a fresh NAS, initialization may occur, so the existing data will be destroyed.

For these reasons, it is viable for an enterprise to be aware of the options for NAS data recovery in case of drive damage and failure. Mentioned below are the resources that can extract data from damaged NAS volumes.

Data Recovery Specialists

Toronto server recovery services, New York experts in data recovery and other similar options are available to enterprises in the US and Canada. Because efforts to bring back missing data or recreate NAS arrays without state-of-the-art recovery programs can result in unwanted logical file structures, expertise, and advanced technology becomes a consideration to repair NAS RAID arrays and NAS applications for data recovery, regardless of the vendor of the NAS device.

Timely Replacement

If a RAID-based system was installed in an enterprise by one vendor, it’s most certain that all the disks are used from the same production date and batch. That means the hard disks are reaching their end state at the same time almost. For this reason, companies should monitor and analyze the status of hard disks at regular intervals. If a RAID 5 has one drive damaged, you can replace it immediately to ensure the data loss isn’t severe. Wait too long, and there’s a chance of another hard disk dropping out. Track the usage inside the storage array; enterprises should make this a part of their business continuity plan. However, replacement may not work in some instances, so enterprises will need to go back to the recovery specialist option.

Image of Contents

If rebuilding is considered, it’s a good idea to create an image of the hard disks’ content inside the storage array before starting the process. With images of the disks available, the chances of data recovery can be extended should rebuilds later fail. So if you face a scenario where the rebuild stopped at 5%, and data loss happens, the content is overwritten and the data is destructed forever. But, with RAID images, you give data recovery professionals the opportunity to rebuild the pieces out of the hard drives from the array systems besides the images, which can help in the reconstruction of the original data structure and system. Moreover, it is recommended that the IT department should label the imaged content in order of their position in the storage array for easier reconstruction.

By taking these measures, you have a chance of saving data in case of NAS failures.